He held the object up in triumph. “It’s a metal pan for panning for gold. I wonder if this was originally the gold mining tunnel or if someone had used it for eating their lunch. Either way, it will work to scoop dirt.”
“Good, now we can go back and get started again.” She was ready to return to the entrance.She’d rather contend with the darknessand know she was at the mouth of the cave than contend with the pressure of the mountain in the light. There was nothing of any use here. Whatever the cave had been used for before, it was long gone. From the marks on the ground, it may have stored ammunition and guns for the Taliban forces. It felt more than empty. The vaulted ceiling looked as if it could come down at any moment, like the one had in the other tunnel.
What if she’d run to the far left instead of the far right? She would have been caught in that dead end. Would that have been better or worse than being buried alive? Her gut told her she was better off, but it was hard to count herself lucky. Was a quick painful death better than a slow painful one?
“There’s just a few more feet to this area. I might find something better.”
She dropped to the ground at the sound. They found her. How did they get through thecave-in? Her breath caught. Was there another entrance? Could she watch them covertly and discover its existence? No, she’d checked. There was nothing, not even in the ceiling. Then how did they get in?
“Riley, get up.”
The command had her jumping to her feet. “Yes, s…” She swallowed her word. Fuck, she’d lost it again.
Garrett studied her as if he could discover what she was thinking. He didn’t want to know. No one did. Other soldiers had experienced much worse.
“Let’s head back. Why don’t you give me the shovel head and you can take the carbide cans?”
A reprieve, but she doubted he’d let it go. Scanning the ground at her feet, she lifted the steel tool and nodded.
Garrett passed by her and led the way back in the direction of the entrance.
She wanted to tell him to turn off the light that they could feel their way back, but that would slow them down, and she wanted out from beneath the mountain more than she wanted light later.
When they arrived at the place she’d hung her towel, Garrett simply lifted it off the rock edge it hung from and continued on. They finally reached the spot where she’d left the water bottle. He halted and hooked the towel on another outcropping of stone.
She walked by him, but he grabbed her arm.
“Time to tell me about your last experience being buried under ground.”
She jerked her arm free, unease filling her soul. “Don’t you think our time is better spent digging out of this place?”
“No. I need to know what you went through.”
And admit she’d been stupid, failed as a soldier, and now couldn’t hold it together? Not likely. “Why. Once we’re out of here, it won’t matter anyway.”
Dropping the pan, he put both hands on her shoulders. His grip was firm but not tight. “It matters now. I’ve seen a lot of trauma and no one has acted like you have. I need to know what you went through so I can be prepared. We’re a team in here, and as a team we have to depend on each other. That means trusting each other with our very lives.”
“A unit.” She didn’t want to be part of a unit. A unit meant friendship and responsibility and loss. She’d sworn off units.
“Yes, we’re a unit.”
She stepped back away from his touch. “No. This is temporary. You said so yourself. We’ll be rescued.” They would be rescued. People would know they were missing because they were part of a unit. She shook her head. No, she had to leave. She didn’t want to be part of a unit, to have any connections.
Garrett wouldn’t be put off. “Riley, look at me.”
She forced her gaze to his. She couldn’t tell the color of his eyes in the diffused grey light. What were they again? Blue? Grey?
“You need to tell me everything. It might give me an idea on how to get us out of here.”
She snorted. “Not likely.”
He continued to stare at her. It was the commanding look of a person in charge and it was hard to resist.
“What the hell position did you have in this Hot Shot force. Were you the commander or something?” She didn’t hide the resentment in her voice. Obeying a command had been so drilled into her that she had a hard time ignoring his tone.
His lips quirked up. “Not exactly, but close enough.”
“Just my luck.” She stepped away again, but this time she walked toward the cave-in and glanced up at the rotten beams. “Right. I’ll tell you the whole ugly story, but first we need to brace what’s here. We can talk while we work.”
